True. That, not the iPod, was Apple's real weapon. Apple was able to bring that off because for a reason that's not well understood. Remember, Apple was nowhere in consumer electronics at the time. There were bigger companies with MP3 players. But Apple had an edge.

Hollywood, which includes the music industry, is very hierarchical. Steve Jobs was not only CEO of Apple. He was also CEO of Pixar. As the head of a major movie studio, he outranked all music executives. He could deal with them as their superior. That got him in the door.

iTunes is now the largest music vendor in the world.